While there is a presidential race going on throughout the country, there will be races for Board of Supervisors seats here in San Francisco and the San Francisco Examiner provides a glimpse of what we can expect throughout the years. Here are some quick points:
Thus far, incumbents Carmen Chu, Ross Mirkarimi and Sean Elsbernd are unopposed.
The biggest non-incumbent fundraiser by far is Claudine Cheng in D3 with $44,145. This is my district and the one I am most interested in. It looks like Cheng could be the frontrunner. David Chiu has the support of the progressives.
Anyone have opninions on the race in D3 or any other district?
(Another excellent regional recap. - promoted by SFBrianCL)
I figured I'd wait until all the votes were counted before I gave my rundown of the election, but they're still counting absentee and provisional ballots as we speak, so this could end up a bit off.
Nationally, things went strongly for Democrats, unseating Republican incumbants left and right, shifting control of both the House and (narrowly) the Senate, and pushing the Democratic caucus leftwards a bit (media narrative to the contrary). Here in California, things look a bit different, although Jerry McNerney's grassroots upset in the 11th CD was a fantastic victory, Lou Correa's narow win in the 34th State Senate District race down in OC looks solid enough to count on now, and Charlie Brown's run in the 4th CD is a sign that no seat is safe when incumbants are corrupt and Democrats are willing to run hard with great candidates and local grassroots support. With some effort, similar challenges could be made, esp. in the 3rd CD and most of the so cal suburban seats as well in 2008. If McNerney and the new Democratic leadership in the House and Senate can start to work out a better deal for the delta and Central Valley agriculture, an alternative to the pro-corporate farm, anti-environmental, suburban sprawl, "free" trade, and commodity price depressing policies of Pombo's old status quo, Calfornia Democrats might find that parts of Inland California might be less forbidding political territory than they assume. Here's hoping McNerney gets the support to make it happen.
I figure everyone else in the universe has done one of these (many of them piled upon my kitchen table at this very moment), so why not me?
Generally, I see this election as a great chance to set California and the nation in a new direction, and get some traction here and there to pursue real change in the future. The stakes, as I wrote below, are quite high, both in terms of really bad things to avoid, and really exciting possibilities for positive change.
I figured this might be a nice thing to share, since a lot of people don't know some of the downticket races and props so much... again these are my views, and not that of Calitics.
Hi everybody, so I filled out my absentee ballot and already sent it in, it's the only way to fly in Oakland since our know nothing Elections Supervisor bought a bunch of Sequoia systems fraud machines despite popular outcry... anyway here's how I voted:
Partisan Offices - statewide
---- Governor - Phil Angelides Lt. Governor - John Garamendi Secretary of State - Debra Bowen State Controller - John Chiang State Treasurer - Bill Lockyer Attorney General - Jerry Brown Insurance Commisioner - Cruz Bustamente (with waffling) United States Senate - (blank) or Diane Feinstein (see below) United States Representative - Barbara Lee State Assembley - Sandre Swanson Judges - re-elect
Statewide propositions. Proposition 1A-NO! Propositions 1B-1E Yes. Proposition 83 - NO!! Proposition 84 - Yes Proposition 85 - FUCK NO!!! Proposition 86 - Yes Proposition 87 - HELL YES! Proposition 88 - No Proposition 89 - YES YES YES! HELL YES!! Proposition 90 - NO!
---
City of Oakland
--- Measure M - yes Measure N - YES! Measure O - YES YES YES!
We all make mistakes. Even me. However, very few of us make mistakes this big.
First, a little background. Some state and local government employees (iclunding myself) are required, under California law, to disclose any real estate, stock or other financial interests that may present a potential conflict of interest. I'm sure many emplyees might forget a few shares of stock, or if a spouse's parent company may do business in a given locale. But $6 million?
Needless to say I'm voting Democratic in the State and Federal elections. Here is how I plan to vote/support on ballot issues and local elections.
Statewide Ballot Issues:
1A.-1E.:
I now work in a municipal public works department and I know how stretched local communitie are trying to make capital improvements given the dollars they currently have. I'm also happy that there will be more (though still not enough) for public transportation.
Prop 83: Yes
Prop 84: Yes
Prop 85: NO NO NO
Prop 86: Yes (Sorry smokers)
Prop 87: Yes
Prop 88: Yes
Prop 89: Yes
Prop 90: No
Local Elections:
Board of Education:
Dan Kelly
Bob Twomey
Jane Kim
Supervisor District 2: Undecided
Supervisor District 4: Doug Chan
Supervisor District 8: Alix Amelia
Supervisor District 6: Rob Black
Supervisor District 10: Sophie Maxwell
BART Director: Emily Drennen
College Board: Undecided
City Ballot Issues:
A: Yes
B: No
C: No
D: Yes
E: No
F: Undecided
This is a tough call for me and one for which I would appreciate any input. On one hand, paid sick leave should be a basic right. On the
other hand, I know there are many small businesses that truly operate right at the margins, and I worry about the consequences of
such a policy. What does everyone think?
G: No
H: Yes
J. YES YES YES
K: Yes
Ok, that where I stand as of tonight. I welcome all opinions, suggestion, criticism or general rant you may have about what I wrote. Before I stop, I want to than SF For Democray for putting on the canssidates forum yesterday on Fillmore. I thought I knew who I was going to support and who I would not support, but watching the
candiates changed my mind in several instances. I wound up supporting Green candidates for School Board and BART Board. I also learned that Jaynry Mak is as vacant as Fiona Ma and Hydra Mendoza's tenure in the Mayor's office did NOT prepare her for the School
Board, IMHO. ;)
Folks, folks, let's get back to the subject at hand here.
Apparantly the Schwarzenegger campaign, like many elected officials don't have the slightest understanding of computers.
What they hope is that the press, on the whole, doesn't either. And sadly, in many cases that is true. The cries and whining about "hacking", and whining and crying they are, are preposterous. To these idiots world, anything vaguely involving computers that they don't like is hacking. I work in IT, and i'm damn good at it, to say the grounds they are talking about is shaky is giving it far, far too much credence.
Let's get back on point now.
There are the same apologists that always say "What's the big deal?" everytime somebody makes a racist and stereotyping remark. Everybody is just being "too pc" and should lighten up.
Here's why the "hot blooded" thing makes a difference.
"All jews are cheap." "All blacks are dumb." "All Muslims are terrorists."
Neither of these statements are true, and if somebody said them, they would be rightfully harrangued as a racist and a fool, perhaps a dangerous one.
Here we are at Labor Day weekend. Two months to go before Election Day and we just MIGHT be poised to take the U.S. House of Representatives. So, at this point in the election cycle, I would like to ponder this question:
What would it mean for San Francisco, and the people of the Eight Congressional District if Nancy Pelosi becomes Speaker?
Other than the symbolic prestige, would it mean more money to upgrades the streets? Perhaps the city can upgrade and improve our transit system? Could BART get enough funding to expand further into the South Bay and consider providing service to the North Bay?
Who would benefit the most politically? Gavin Newson? Fiona Ma? Mark Leno? The local unions?
When I lived in Michigan, John Dingell was my Congressman, and Christmas came year-round while he was Oversight Chairman. Hopefully now, California, especially the Bay Area, can get its fair share.
This just in my email box by way of the California Young Democrats. Fromer Senator and Vice-Presidential candidate John Edwards will stump for Phil Angelides.
The Assembly just passed this bill that would ensure 7 million uninsured Californians, and of course Arnold is planning on vetoing the bill without offering any solutions.
The bill would eliminate private medical insurance plans and establish a statewide health insurance system for all state residents, reports The San Francisco Chronicle. The state senate is expected to approve changes to plan and send it the Republican governor, who has expressed his opposition to a single-payer plan.
The Chronicle said the governor, however, has not offered an alternative for the state's 7 million people who are uninsured. His office has said the governor would propose solutions in his State of the State address in January if he is re-elected.
please! I really hope nobody falls for that line, that sounds like the old bait and switch to me. Fool me once... shame on you...
I wish there was a candidate that actually believed in covering everybody, oh wait there is, his name is Phil Angelides.
And if you'd like to help him win, you can donate here on the ActBlue GovernorPhil page... let's try to get to 100 donors!
From Stu Rothenberg's lips to God's ears. It looks like official Washington is accepting the frame of a likely Democratic takeover of the U.S. House of Representatives.
Frank has a real winner of a post in his CA Progress Report today. Specifically progressive darling, verified voting activist and all around awesome lady State Sen. Debra Bowen, (our next Secretary of State) has proposed a bill that would bring some much needed reform to the proposition process. It would require disclosure whether signature collectors are volunteers or being paid and most importantly show who is paying for it.
Considering how Republicans, who can't get legislators elected in California based on their ideas, have utterly hijacked the proposition process. This is huge. Recently CA Republicans main strategy seems to be throw as much money as possible into paid signature collection for bogus bills designed to castrate Democratic support, and bring out touchy feely issues that will turn out the Conservative base...
SB 1598 passed the California Assembly this week on a strict party line vote of 43 to 28 with all Democrats in favor and all Republicans opposed. It has previously passed the Senate on a similar partisan vote and that body will vote on concurring in minor amendments made in the Assembly before it goes to the Governor.
This could be seriously bad news for Phil's opponent the recall Governor as well...
I just received an email from Project Bluebridge nofifying everyone that Phil Angelides returns to the bay Area tomorrow to talk about Tax Relief for the middle class.
Interesting that the tradtional media only seems to pay attention to "events" when they are officially sanctioned and have the "right people". It reminds me of the rock world, where a band can be instantly famous if they have the right "members of..." in the group, whether the music is any good or not. Check out this article in the Sacramento Bee over a political website created by insiders that is launching on tuesday:
Thirty Democratic operatives -- pollsters, consultants and spokespeople -- will launch the "California Majority Report" at midnight Tuesday at www.camajorityreport.com. The big launch party is Tuesday night at Mason's in downtown Sacramento, complete with a "special guest," former Gov. Gray Davis.
Oh wow! Gray Davis... (*yawn*), how exciting. Heh, I guess it's good that he's keeping busy, anyway, the site CA Majority Report is billed as an alternative to the right wing Flash Report. Which is fine, I mean i'm all for more voices being added to the discussion, but it is interesting that the story acts like it's coming out of a vaccuum and totally ignores the previously existing California blogosphere.
You may remember Bill Bradley from Dday's adventures: Wherein the biggest media insider in CA (Bill Bradley) flips out on me: UPDATED, if not... well you missed out on a hell of a diary, and you should really open that up in a new window just to check it out, and not just because Dday is a great writer either. Bradley sometimes posts on dkos, runs a side called New West Notes, and is most definitely NOT the former Senator who ran for President in 2000. Garry South is one of the most famous campaign consultants in California, he ran Gray Davis's winning campaigns, but ditched town during the recall to help Joe Lieberman with his (*ahem*) Presidential bid in 2004.
Anyway, as most of you in CA already know... a bunch of us have started a site called GovernorPhil.com. You might remember us from that whole AngelaBradstreetfiasco from last week that made it to the mydd front page and prompted a response from Dianne Feinstein, and had DiFi showing at Phil's economic event on wed. Anyway, today Dan Ancona and I had a real "crashing the gates" moment on New West Notes today. Where among other things, Ned Lamont's candidacy is defended, Jim Webb's record as a netroots draftee is and I got to personally call out Garry South for being the instigator in the horribly negative Democratic gubernatorial primary in California. You know, the one that probably cost us CA-50?
I found this tidbit in the comments of our still brand spanking new people powered site GovernorPhil.com. It looks like Dianne Feinstein (who is up for re-election this year, and somehow managed to squeak by without getting Lamont-ed), has a problem. Namely that her campaign co-chair Angela Bradstreet, just mouthed off to the press about how she is not going to vote for Phil Angelides in the fall... and why? because she's sick of paying taxes! Ohhh... boo hoo...
"Quite frankly, I'm also sick and tired of paying taxes," she said. "And that's Angelides' solution -- raising taxes."
If I may quote the great and wise philosopher Plato: "WAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAH!!!!"
Angela Bradstreet, you are officially "on notice".
(quotes and more below the cut)
(Hey all you Calitics readers...can you do us a favor and recommend neutron's dKos x-post of this diary.. - promoted by SFBrianCL)
I am very, very pleased to announce the launch of the website GovernorPhil.com. Inspired by Raising Kaine in Virginia, that helped elect Tim Kaine governor of Virginia (and soon, Jim Webb), and Lamont blog which recently helped win the nomination for Ned Lamont in the Connecticut Democratic primary.
Quite simply, this election is not just about the current California recall governor. Certainly that guy is odious, in the pocket of big business and the extreme right wing, all the while acting the part of a moderate. However, while pointing out the current govenor's lies, misdirections, and dangerous policis, this site is designing to be about helping present the vision and character of California's next Governor, Philip Nicholas Angelides. Or as we hope to call him soon. Governor Phil
Tuesday, June 27th Robert Greenwald's Brave New Films is holding house parties around the country to celebrate Clean Money Day, and screen their new flick: "The Big Buy: Tom DeLay's Stolen Congress."
The movie ends with a look at the need for clean money elections, also known as publicly-financed elections. As part of our campaign for clean money elections--we're sponsoring a November ballot initiative--we are hosting Movie Nights at our headquarters in Oakland and Glendale. Come on down! The events run from 6:30 to 7:30 and we will feed you!
In 1994, Michigan Senator Don Reigle announced his retirement in the wake of his role in the Keating 5 Scandal. The two leading candidates for the Democratic nomination to replace him were moderate Congressman Bob Carr and the progressive State Senator from Ann Arbor, Lana Pollack. Like many voters across the country, I was fed up with the arrogance of power that had been displayed in recent years by the House Democratic leadership, and my political instincts told me there was no way an incumbent Democrat Congressman was going to be elected to the Senate in this environment. So, with these matters in mind, I decided to back State Senator Pollack. Boy, was I in for a political education.
(Two in One: Support clean money AND protest Doolittle! Edited slightly for space - promoted by SFBrianCL)
Does the culture of corruption have a cure? California’s nurses think so.
This week, nurses are in the process of turning in 600,000 signatures to registrars around the state to qualify an initiative for “Clean Money Elections,” also known as public financing of elections. Think of it as the Jack Abramoff anti-dote, or as the comprehensive campaign finance reform that voters are desperately looking for. You can read about it here and here. More in the extended...
